For the Love of Money

"For the love of money, People will lie, rob, they will cheat, For the love of money, People don't care who they hurt or beat...I know that money is the root of all evil, Do funny things to some people...For a small piece of paper it carries a lot of weight...It'll keep on - it'll keep on - changing - yeah - changing up your mind, I'm tellin' y'all, People, don't let money, don't let money change you, Almighty Dollar!" - The O'Jays 'For The Love of Money'

Almost every day I spend 400 CFA on a large bottle of water, 300 CFA for the two sotrames I take to get to work (I get a ride back), 200 CFA on breakfast, 450 CFA on lunch (I thought about bringing my own lunch to work but not only do we lack sufficient Tupperware at our place but there are no facilities at work to heat the food), 300 CFA for one hour on the internet (and let’s be honest if I am blogging, checking emails and uploading pictures it’s more likely that I will be there for 2 hours).

All this comes to a total of 1650 CFA (1950 if we count the second hour of internet time). This translates into about $3.50 - $4.20 per day in a country where 90% live on less than $2 per day. So on the average day I spend 75 - 110% more than the average Malian and I have not yet eaten any snacks, dinner, called or texted anyone, engaged in any form of entertainment, gone anywhere but to work or considered the cost of electricity, cooking gas, or rent for the apartment. Talk about privilege.

In contrast, it isn’t abnormal for folks here not to have enough money to put credit on their phones so they can make as well as receive calls and texts. Fa went to the doctor ages ago for a stomach malady that bothered her from time to time and she still has the prescription though she hasn’t had enough money to fill it. Constance has customers who owe her money as they needed goods even when they did not have the funds to pay for them. One woman owes Constance 20,000 CFA and pays back only a few thousand CFA here and there. Another man left town owing her 5,000 CFA and she’s not sure that he will be coming back.

Yesterday evening I stopped by to see Fa. She was studying for a big test on Monday and so I left after not too long there. She considered taking me back to my place on her brother’s moto but he had the keys and he was up on the roof chatting with two of his friends. Instead of heading back up to the roof she hung her head back and howled something in Bambera. They live in a 2 story apartment building with 3 sections on each level. A few people looked but it took Chaick a while to come to the edge of the roof. He looked down at his sister and frowned and asked, Do you have any sense and dropped the keys down. I laughed because I was thinking the same thing but Fa just fixed her doe eyes on me and flashed a coy, dimpled smile, Oh you understood what he said? Unfortunately the moto was out of gas anyway so we walked. When we got to my place I fried up 2 plantains to snack on while Fa watched astounded. You know how to prepare food, she asked. Yes, I laughed, why not? Because you’re American, she said. You don’t think Americans eat too, I asked. We ate our snack while a dub of Damon Wayan’s family sitcom played in the background and then I walked her back to the halfway point.

From there I went to Constance’s boutique. Constance and Mohammed, Constance’s friend from Algeria, were chatting away and so I sat down and joined them. We got on the subject of the cost of living. Mohammed was shocked that rent is as high as it is in the US. He says he pays 47,000 CFA or $100 for a very spacious apartment. When he askes me questions about the US they tend to be all or nothing questions. I point out that some of everything exists in the US, that there are extremely rich and extremely poor that don’t live too far removed from what I have seen in Mali. He looks at me shocked. I continue to tell him that in some places in the US people don’t have running water or electricity. He tells me he can’t fathom what I am saying, that this exists in the most powerful country in the world. He shakes his head. Constance pipes in with support. She says she has seen it with her own eyes on television.

Is it true that people don’t stop and share pleasantries with each other and have tea, he asks. In some places they do but in the cities they don’t. People are in a rush. That’s one thing I appreciate about being here I said, people have been so hospitable and it’s not quite like that at home. There people have to know you from somewhere, from work, from church, from a social group, from friends etc. before they just invite you over their house for tea or a meal. I think we tend to have more mistrust for strangers…And here I am in Constance’s boutique making change for customers while she is breastfeeding Jean who is especially irritable as he is teething. What would life be if we didn’t take time to greet each other, to talk and inquire about health and family, to take tea together, what would it be if I didn’t share my food if you didn’t have some… It’s capitalism, Mohammed finally says. It makes people only care about money and not other people. Everyone for himself. It’s sad.

I see his point, but I have also seen in Mali that there are blind beggars, that little boys in clothes so tattered and dirty that you can’t even tell their original color go about with buckets singing in their beautiful Viennese choir voices and asking for people to provide blessings (money) from Allah, that women also wait by stoplights with buckets to collect whatever monies passerbys might give, with one baby strapped to their back and another, older or younger no doubt only by 9 or 10 months, strapped to their front. Not everyone here is sharing with their neighbors.